Concert to feature works by American Indian student composers

Hear works written by American Indian student composers who are part of the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) in a concert in the Steele Auditorium at the Heard on Tuesday, Sept. 2. A pre-concert gathering with a cash bar is in the Steele foyer is at 5:30 p.m., followed by a one-hour concert at 6 p.m. The student composers’ works will be performed by NACAP ensemble-in-residence, “ETHEL.”

Tickets are $10 and are available online as well as at the door. Tickets are not available from the Heard Museum.

NACAP is a part of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, which for 14 years has worked with students from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Navajo and Hopi reservations. Among the program’s awards are the 2013 New Music USA’s New Music Educators Award, the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities — which was presented by First Lady Michelle Obama — and in Arizona, the Governor’s Arts Award.

According to a statement from the music festival, “NACAP’s composer-in-residence Raven Chacon (Navajo), assisted by NACAP alum Michael Begay (Navajo), engages students in a rigorous course of study, culminating in each student creating works which are created, premiered and recorded by professional ensembles. Since 2001, more than 500 new works have been written by NACAP apprentice composers from the Navajo Nation, including Chinle, Tuba City, Kayenta, Montezuma Creek and Shiprock, as well as the Hopi Tribe and Salt River Community. Their works have been performed worldwide, including with the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and American Public Media’s ‘From the Top at Carnegie Hall.’ ”

Learn more about the NACAP here.

Contact NACAP by email at gcmf@infomagic.net.